Born in 1972

If you were born in 1972, you came into the year Australia changed direction after twenty-three years. Gough Whitlam's Labor Party swept to power in December with "It's Time" and the electricity in the country was palpable — something had been held down for a long time and now it was moving. Whitlam's government would in three tumultuous years abolish conscription, withdraw troops from Vietnam, introduce Medibank, begin land rights discussions, open diplomatic relations with China, and try to remake Australia in about a thousand other ways simultaneously.

The arts would flourish: Australian films, Australian music, Australian self-confidence. But that was all still ahead. In 1972 itself, the mood was one of joyful expectation.

Skyhooks were beginning. Sherbet were performing. Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were filling the pubs with something that felt loud and specifically Australian.

The Whitlam years would define a generation. The beach was still free, the barbie was still in the backyard, the footy was still the Saturday religion — but the country felt, for the first time in a long time, like it was moving forward under its own power rather than following someone else's lead.